In light of the Batman by-election scheduled for this Saturday, 17 March, we thought we’d revisit this profile of Batman Greens candidate and former Farrago contributor Alex Bhathal. This was published in Farrago vol. 62, no. 15, Monday 22 October 1984, page 16.

 Eastern Suburbs—it’s really awful, I battle by [sic] way through the mercedes on the way home. My mother gives me $20.00 a week pocket money and I earn $15.00 a week from teaching piano. And it all goes because my friend Warwick makes me go out to expensive restaurants and shout beers. I just go to pubs and parties. Last year I used to go to discos with friends from the Italian Club but I got bored with that. I don’t like getting dressed up. I go on car rallies every two months and sit in the back seat of cars, bumping my head and navigating.

It was Arts/Music but I dropped Music—I got sick and couldn’t play the viola anymore (glandular fever). There isn’t too much that’s good about my course. Most of my tutors aren’t properly versed in their subject areas. I’ve done Prehistoric Archaeology and Ancient History and I enjoyed them immensely. You don’t have to work hard to pass—I always hand in my essays at least a term late.

“I didn’t see as many interesting people here as I though [sic] I would. The people in my course were as boring as me. All fresh out of school.”

I’m not sure what I want to do when I leave University, but if I do anthropology, it’ll be relevant. No input into course content—because I don’t turn up to lectures—I’m always doing things like library work at the last minute.

I thought I’d find the course work very interesting—which I didn’t. I thought it would be a lot more academic. I suppose I’m disappointed because academia didn’t become a part of my life. I also didn’t see as many interesting people as I thought I would. The people in my course were as boring as me—all fresh out of school.

I’m involved in a lot of C/S on campus. Last year I was involved in Dungeons and Dragons, the French Club, German Club. But I stopped turning up to their functions when I joined the ALP club. I met a group of people there who I thought were more interesting and different. It’s all consuming really: at about that time I stopped seeing my old school friends.

Student Politics should operate in terms of what’s best for students. That’s a very utilitarian views about other things in my life. As a student politician, my main task is hassling the admin, because I hate them. That should be our main goal, but sometimes it isn’t. Student politics attracts too many wankers and careerists. I don’t know why, it just seems to.

Hawke is without ideology, I hate him. I think he is the worst possible thing that could happen to the ALP. The first time I saw him, when I was about 7 years, on TV, I asked mum who he was, and said I hated his guts. He’s a rather immature person. I will vote for the ALP candidate in the Kooyong electorate though I’ll vote the disarmament party after the first ALP candidates and before Jim Cairns if he runs out.

This header image was originally published in the same Farrago on page 7. The original profile can be viewed here. This was collated by Esther Le Couteur.

You can check out the rest of our coverage of the Batman by-election here.